Innovation - Lesson #1

[Stacey Fraser]

Lesson #1

Do you consider yourself innovative? Why or why not?
I do not consider myself very innovative. I can be innovative when it comes to a mandated policy/process system that must happen, but I do not think I spend enough time being proactive in this area. I think this is mostly because of a fear of failure, as I have always been the type of person that strives to be on top of things, always in control, and always the expert of my realm. In my mind, before reading and digesting some of the information in the required readings, having an idea or process change that goes wrong and fails is unacceptable and might have been a waste of time and energy. Not that I am perfect and do not make mistakes, but leading teams and growing programs has put me in positions where people and clients rely on me and my expertise and failure, in my mind, would have been letting people down.

What is one thing that stood out for you about Innovation from the article(s) and video that you had not considered before?
One of the Google pillars, “Never fail to fail”, is profound to me. As silly as it seems, it is refreshing and piggy backs on my comments above. No one is perfect and failing at something can be and should be a learning experience. Failing allows for productive and interactive communication amongst team members. Going forward, I can also see this as a method for interaction and building of team dedication/ownership by having people incorporate their ideas and suggestions, failing or succeeding together.

[Leslie Reid]

Hi Stacey,

I totally get where you are coming from. Fear of failure is something I grapple with. I really have to push myself past the fear to take the risk. Never fail to fail is sage advice. It gives us permission to release our fear and go for it. The worst thing that could happen is we come face to face with that fear. Then we get to stare it down and learn from it.

Leslie

[Gregg Caplitz]

What a great post Stacey. I certainly agree with your fear of failing. To be blunt I suck at failing. I find it very troubling so I tend to avoid it. I have suceesded in life by maximizing my strenghts and minimizing my weaknesses but is that really a valid approach? Or simply a reaction to fear of failing?

[jesseperez]

Stacey, the fear of failure because we don’t want to let somebody down is very real. We work with real people with real needs. How do you think that PDSAs might come into this when looking at effectiveness prior to rolling out changes?